The Hand of Fate
by Seizalyn
Summary: A confused, young Rouge and his mutually-young friend converse on a certain, disturbing aspect of their training.


**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Call this drabble, call this snippet, call this whatever you like... Call this the mindless rambling of an authoress buried in the evil clutches of homework ^^ I've always wanted to write a twins-as-kids fic, and while this isn't exactly what I had in mind, it's just the first step *shrug* An actual twins-as-kids fic would actually have both kids in them, while this is just one half ^_^ Actually, I came up with this thing while fooling around with another SF fic, and it stretched on so long it eventually became too long for one part of a fic ^^;;

It's more of a look at the common conceptions (or misconceptions, as it were) held by a normal child in the Magic Kingdom's society. Rouge is very blur, but he's just a child right now, so I beg your pardon ^.^ I have no idea if "Pollen" is the name of those plant-orb-like monsters in the game, but let's just pretend it is as Lynn-chan is too lazy to dig up her SaGa Frontier gaming manual just to look up one unimportant plant-like monster.

Also, Rouge and his companion should be rather young, but not young enough that talking is a problem. Try ages ten to twelve.

**SPOILERS:** None, as this is most obviously pre-game. 

===========================================  
**The Hand of Fate  
**or: What Kids Talk About When They Should Be Studying  
===========================================

"You won your first battle already, didn't you?"  
  
"Huh? ...Oh, yes, I did..."  
  
"Goddess' blessing, Rouge! That's marvellous!"  
  
"It was just a training session, though."  
  
"Doesn't matter, that's still something! The training sessions are hard, you know."  
  
"Um...yes, they told me."  
  
"Did you like it?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Did you like it?"  
  
"Being able to use magic? Well, yeah, it was really... different... than what I thought it--"  
  
"No, no! I meant the battle. Did you like going up against that thing, knowing that it could kill you with one swipe of its vicious claws, that its stinky poison breath could peel your skin off and turn your eyeballs inside out, that its 100-foot long spear could run you through and skewer you like a piece of--"  
  
"It was just a Pollen."  
  
"But such a DANGEROUS and FEARSOME Pollen!"  
  
"...No, not really..."  
  
"By Goddess, you're so cool!"  
  
"No, really! It--It was nothing..."  
  
"It must have been such a thrill, such excitement!  
  
"Is...is that how it's supposed to be?"  
  
"...What? You didn't feel the adrenaline?"  
  
"I did... I think I did. It's just... it was just a weird plant, why did I have to kill it?"  
  
"Because it would have killed YOU."  
  
"It tried to kill me by hiding under the handmaid's dress?"  
  
"How do YOU know it was just 'hiding'? Maybe it planned to take her hostage, threaten you into submission, force you and bend you to its every whim--"  
  
"It was a plant, Lenel! A PLANT. What whim could it possibly want me to bend to?!"  
  
"...Don't look at me. I'm not a plant."  
  
"......"  
  
"...You know, my master told me that magicians, especially the children in training--"  
  
"I am not a child."  
  
"Shh, let me finish. Anyway, he told me that they sometimes feel that way. It's called guilt, he said. They think they did something wrong when actually, they were only doing what was natural to them."  
  
"Natural...? How is it...?"  
  
"Yes, well, um... ah! Look at that worm. Over there, by Aunt Julian's garden. See it?"  
  
"Yes, yes."  
  
"Just wait, and watch. Something will happen."  
  
"..You want me to watch a worm when I'm supposed to be studying?"  
  
"You're supposed to be studying and you're TALKING to ME."  
  
"......"  
  
"--Ahh, there! Lookit! See that?!"  
  
"...A bird just snagged the worm."  
  
"I knew it would happen! It ALWAYS happens at Aunt Julian's house. Her house has the fattest, stuffiest worms ever, so birds like them a lot--"  
  
"So?"  
  
"--so they always come and snag worms from her garden, although sometimes I like to pick them up and feed 'em to the birds myself--"  
  
"Lenel. What's that got to do with your master?"  
  
"Oh, that's right. Anyway, the bird is a more intelligent, better-looking and overall higher-ranking animal than the sluggish, slimy worm over there. Because of that, it has the right to pick it and eat it whenever it wants."  
  
"So I have the right to pick and eat the Pollen whenever I want?"  
  
"NO! Goddess' tails, Rouge, you are a dull one."  
  
"...that was supposed to be a joke..."  
  
"Well, it doesn't matter. The point is that the bird does not need to eat the worm; it could go and eat harmless stuff like fruits. But it can. It has the CHOICE. So it does. The same principle applies to us."  
  
"In what way?"  
  
"We, as humans, are the highest-ranking species in all the regions, thereby having the RIGHT and the CHOICE of picking and eating whatever we want. Lower-ranking species bow down to our will and intelligence, our capacity for compassion, our belief in religion, our, our... er..."  
  
"...Do you even understand what your master's monologue meant?"  
  
"Hey, whatever, the point is that we're the best there is. We have all the stuff that animals and monsters don't, and that's what makes us better."  
  
"And gives us the right to decide if they live or die?"  
  
"The goddesses are the only ones more powerful than us, and THEY decide who lives and who dies. Why not the same for us? We decide their lives by hunting and killing, which is really a natural thing for the higher-ranking species to inflict upon the lower-ranked ones."  
  
"Like the bird and the worm."  
  
"EXACTLY! So what you did to that Pollen, you shouldn't feel guilty about it. If you have to, or want to, just do it, because it's your right."  
  
"But it's still... weird... I mean, when I did it, I--there was this weird, ugly taste in my mouth, like I did something bad..."  
  
"Because you were feeling guilty. Always remember that we are the best. Humans are the greatest. Even though mecs are sentient creatures, and have their own race, who made them in the first place?"  
  
"Humans."  
  
"Good. Monsters don't even have a proper society, or language, or beliefs. But who does?"  
  
"Humans."  
  
"And mystics... well, are freaky. They live in dark places and suck people's blood. At least, that's what my master tells me."  
  
"Has he met any mystics before?"  
  
"...I don't know. But I'm sure he did, or else he wouldn't tell me about them! He ONLY tells me about stuff he's absolutely, one hundred percent sure about!"  
  
"Oh. So how are mystics a lesser species? Don't they live longer? And have everything that we do?"  
  
"...Erm, well... I--I guess mystics just ARE lower-ranked. Hand of fate and all that, you know. I mean, just LOOK at them! Everyone thinks they're freaks; that's why they hole themselves all up in one region and never go about anywhere that NORMAL people do."  
  
"How do you know? Have you actually seen any place outside our own region?"  
  
"Well... no. But my master said so, and he's travelled outside before. He's been to almost every region there is."  
  
"Oh. Do you feel guilty about battling, then?"  
  
"...I'm not as talented as you are. They're not letting me battle yet."  
  
"...Don't worry, I'm sure they'll let you, soon."  
  
"Of course they would... and I wouldn't feel guilty, or sad, or anything else other than sheer excitement! I'm sure about it. I know exactly where I stand in this world, and I wouldn't feel a smidge of guilt about offing one dumb Pollen. The world's full of 'em, anyway, what's one less going to do?"  
  
"I guess..."  
  
"Besides, only children feel guilty about dumb things like that. I'm not a child."  
  
"Me neither."  
  
They talked for a short while longer, sitting idly on a swing in Aunt Julian's porch, before Rouge's guardian came to retrieve him. Taking his guardian's hand with his own, smaller one, he waved his other at Lenel's slowly disappearing form. Since his guardian was related to Lenel's Aunt Julian, he had been fortunate enough to spend some time with someone his age, even if he was from another academy.  
  
Summer holidays were always so dull in his own academy, since everyone always went back, and all he had as company were his masters.  
  
Lenel was a good friend.  
  
As they neared his own academy, Rouge's mind kept wandering back to their earlier conversation. A snippet in particular, caught his attention.  
  
_"You aren't if you understand everything I've said. Because my master tells me tons of stuff and he's one of the smartest in the academy. Things just ARE that way, and who are we to change the goddesses' wills? Right?"  
  
"...Right."  
_  
His guardian was busy explaining something to him, something about his next training session. Rouge kept his eyes on the path they traversed, idly studying each carefully placed stone before him.  
  
"...Who are we, indeed..."

~fin~


End file.
